Premier Foods, the manufacturer of many great British dinner table staples, has steadied the ship after a tumultuous year, but the debt-laden group said that it still faced a significant challenge.

Britain’s biggest branded food maker yesterday revealed a 10.5 per cent rise in trading profit to £123.4 million. Underlying sales in the year to December rose 3.2 per cent to £1.3 billion and pre-tax profit was £4.4 million, reversing a loss of £259.1 million the year before.

Coming only three weeks after Michael Clarke, the former chief executive, stunned the City by resigning only 18 months in the job,